New Volkswagen CEO Says Emissions Scandal Could Signal the End of the Company

Last month, the EPA accused Volkswagen of rigging nearly 5 million diesel cars in the U.S. to pass emissions tests even though they spewed far greater emissions on the highway. The EPA’s number, 5 million, is considerably higher than the 500,000 number of affected cars reported by Volkswagen. Who should we trust?

USA Today is reporting that Volkswagen’s new CEO, Hans Dieter Poetsch, admits how the Volkswagen emissions scandal could cripple the world’s largest automaker to the point that it is forced to shut down. Poetsch warned managers how the automaker’s diesel-emission scandal poses “an existence-threatening crisis for the company” as new details emerged about how the debacle unfolded.

The New York Times reported the cheating began in 2008 after Volkswagen’s engineers figured out that the new diesel engines they had developed at great expense would not meet emissions standards in the U.S. and other countries. So they installed software to beat the tests, the Times reported based on unnamed sources with knowledge of the inquiry.

The cheating resulted from not wanting scrap the years of effort they had put into developing the engine. The report says Volkswagen is yet to pinpoint who was responsible for the cheating. Several engineers have admitted to creating the software aimed at cheating the tests.